Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1887-08-18

n. w. White, OF the Peoria Journal, gives tho
4 was in tho second sleeper, and we were
| going along about midnight when there came
peculiar jostling thought that we had
been derailod Our porter said, We are all
| right when some one said, There is fire
ahead got up and went TO the front. The
head engine had rushed over the chasm. The
| second engine had tumbled into IL. It had
| telescoped, and the engineer was q shapeless
mass. The first car was turned at richt angles
with the track, and the remaining eleven cars
had telescoped and piled up In one heap.
Several of uB climbed on the cars with axes
and lanterns and went TO work The FIRST man
| He was dead We pulled him out after some
effort and then pulled his daughters. Emma
and Ida, out. They were all dead. Every one
to be jammed. Most of them had their legs
| broken. After an hour and a half we cleared
p the car; They We're Offering go each for relief.
Probably there were dozen bodies taken out.
Mrs. Deal was one OF these.
Il then won't down ON the ground and assisted
| In taking the dead down. The people on the
ground put plank up and the bodies taken out
were slid down the plank. The dead were put
| in ono pile and the living In another. Every
| at once.
zone OF tho horrible incidents was this:
man, well dressed, who was so badly injured
that his bowels were protruding, called inces-
sanity for water, and as he could not be attend
ed to he finally pulled out his revolver and shot
| himself through the head
"One little boy, the son Of the Methodist min
lister Mt Abingdon-Frank Snadecker. about IL
years old-was found on the bosom of his dead
mother. His left leg hung by the skin, his right
arm was broken and one eye was put out
They pulled him out and tried to give him a
drink OF brandy He refused to take it and
eroan found ' Ssad banoino from otseou tr"ct
IL was apparently that Of man who had been
caught by the hair.
Il found several headless bodies. Those
who recognized the dead Immediately ticketed
them.
aOno of tho most awful sights was that some
OF those released robbed the dead OF their
watches and valuables, and some people held
the theory that tho bridge was set on hre in
order to thus perpetrato robberies"
w. Quicker one OF the Galesburg passengers,
relates a singular experience. His wife and he
were in the rear OF u chair Cur, the tenth Cur OF
the train. They had no warning OF what was
to come. The train was running at the rate OF
thirty-1ve miles an hour. Mr. Quicker was
aroused by the terrible crash of glass and
breaking timbers. The end of the car was
poised twenty feet I'm the air. He crawled
through broken window and slid down the
that end of tho escaped without sorious in
Jury. The top OF tho car parted in the center.
Tho other end was crushed like an egg-shell.
p. =. Van Liew who walked from the safe end
of tho car the moment before, was caught and
dangerously injured.
There were thirty in the car" said Mr..
Gucker @and only six survive. Out Of one
party Of nine only three live. One man who
had lost his wife and child and was badly in
iured himself went into an adjacent cornfield
and committed suicide. Six young mon from
Canton who were in the first car were saved by
woman seated near Mr.. Quicker thrust her head
through a car window and was decapitated.
The pockets OF a number OF those injured were
picked by unfeeling rowdies."
X. q. Riser, Of Kankakee, who was at the
scene of tho wreck soon after the disaster
says:
train by less than Ave minutes. Twenty-six
minutes aiterward took a freight train, and
when wo got to Forest the conductor had
orders to bring all the physicians he could:
When we arrived at the wreck found
tho most heart-rending and indescrbable
scene ever witnessed. Every one was
begging to be taken from tho wreck, as
they were afraid Of it catching fire. The bridge
was on fire and no water was at hand to put it
could went to work to smother the ire. We had
nothing To work with except our hands, and
had TO carry dirt as best we could.
AT about 80 a. IN. a shower of rain put Lout
the fire and we turned our attention to reliev-
| ing the people in the cars. We worked until
Bodies. besdes scores SSe WonnGeS poo
| pie. Thoy were terribly mangled. Re-
| lief trains took the dead and wounded to Piper
school house at Chatsworth were improvised
| into hospital and the cit zens came TO our
relief with coffee, bread. and butter, and
! everything possible, especially bandages and
| medicine fer the suffering
Mr.. Risser said no stood the sickening work
| Of relieving the wounded and getting out the
dead until he came to the dead bodies OF two
| girls about the ago of his own, when his hu-
manity gave way and he was compelled to
| stop.
| THE DEAD.
The news of the disaster was brought to
! Chatsworth by one of the passengers about mid
| night and the inhabitants aroused. Buggies,
| lumber-wagons and every kind Of vehicle were
used to reach the fatal spot AS fast as the
they were laid out on the side Of the
track. Before midnight tho work of re-
| Chatsworth was begun As soon as the corpses
wero received they were placed in large
vacant building lately p occupied SI as & store
tho depot-waiting room. The residents of
the town threw open. their houses for
| the reception OF the dead and wounded,
| but tho former wore all taken to the
| improvised morgues Friend and relatives
| OF tho dead came to Chatsworth with
\ the remains, and the scenes in the different
| places where the bodies lay were heartrending.
| As the day passed bodies were being contin-
| ualy brought from the scene of the wreck, the
| frightful manner many Of them having their
| faces entirely torn away, leaving their brains
exposed, while their jaws, fingers, and legs had
NOTHING TO LIVE FOR.
There was one incident OF the accident which
stood out more horrible than all of those horri-
BILE scenes. In the second coach was n man,
his wife, and little child. His name could not
be learned, but it is said he got on at
| Peoria. When the accident occurred the en-
| tire family OF three wero caught and held down
by broken woodwork Finally, when relief
came, the man turned to the friendly aid and
feebly said
sTako out my wife first I'm afraid the child
is dead
So they carried out the mother, and as a
broken scat as taken off her crushed breast
the blood which welled from her lips told how
badly she was hurt They carried the child a
fair haired, blue-eyed girl Of 3. and laid her In
the corn-hold, dead, alongside OF her dying
mother, Then they vent back for the father and
brought him out. Both his legs were broken, but
he crawled through the corn TO the side Of his
wife, and, feeling her loved features in the
darkness, PRESSED some brandy to her lips and
asked her how she felt. A feeble groan was
Tho man felt the form of his dead wife and
child, and cried out; my God, there Is moth
ing more for me to live for now !" and, taking a
pistol out Of his pocket, pulled the trigger. The
bullet went surely throught the brain, and tho
three dead bodies of that little family are now
living side by side In Chatsworth waiting to
be Identified.
INCIDENTS OF THE HORROR.
Cne man with both legs broken dragged him
self away from the wreck and took out pistol
and shot himself In the head. superintendent
Armstrong OF the Wabash, accompanied the
officials Of the road. None of them was hurt.
From the latest reports it is said that 126 were
killed and about three hundred wounded, maxi
ing IL one Of the worst railroad accidents over
known in this country.
There was an incident In the affair which was
not only remarkable in its wav, but shows how
terribly those six coaches were iammed and
mashed together When the accident occurred
Andy Mooney, of Peoria, and Conductor still
well, who was in charge OF the train, were three
cars from each other. Mooney was I'm the
next instant they found themselves literally
in each others arms, tho car in (which
the conductor riding having
on top OF the one which Mooney was in. The
strange part Of it was that neither man was
hurt.
There was also another wonderful escape in
ENat DO Nna ar N.l ~ al ~ foln